Dr. Michael A. Murray

Details

Education

• Post-Doctoral Study, Harvard University, Seminar: After-Beethoven, Reinhold Brinkmann
• Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), University of Arizona, Cello Performance and Musicology
• Master of Music (MM), University of Arizona, Cello Performance
• Bachelor of Music (BM), University of Missouri-St. Louis

Teaching

• UHC 110 Freshman Honors Seminar
• MUS 131 String Techniques and Skills for the Music Educator
• MUS 149-449 String (Instrument)
• MUS 241 The Language of Music
• MUS 249 String Instrument
• MUS 315 Form and Analysis
• MUS 345 Music in Western Culture and Society I
• MUS 472 Small Ensemble
• MUS 544 Music of the Baroque Era
• MUS 545 Music of the Classical Era
• MUS 546 Music of the Romantic Era
• MUS 547 Music of the 20th Century
• MUS 684 Music of the Baroque Era
• MUS 685 Music of the Classical Era
• MUS 686 Music of the Romantic Era
• MUS 687 Music of the 20th Century
• MUS 772 Small Ensembles

Research and professional interests

Professor Michael Murray enjoys a varied career as a performer-scholar, dividing his activity between teaching cello and music history at Missouri State University. He regularly appears throughout the United States and Europe as a soloist and participant in chamber and orchestral settings. The Arizona Daily Star praises “the glowing cello of Michael Murray” with music making at once “phenomenal” and “featuring tightly focused passion and confident projection.” The Kansas City Star refers to Murray’s playing as “stylish” with “a veloute sauce richness.” Rome’s Corriere della Sera comments that Murray ‘not only demonstrated mastery or his instrument, but also drew beautiful, limpid sounds and elegant phrasing.” In addition to an active performing schedule, Murray regularly offers upper-level undergraduate and graduate period courses in music of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras. He is a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship recipient for post-doctoral research at Harvard University. Murray’s Artist/Scholar Residency in Rome’s American Academy led to research in music for cello by Italian composers of the 1930s. His study in critical thinking in the arts led to a presentation of a paper, The Well-Tempered Ear, at the Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique at Sonoma State University.
 
Michael Murray holds a DMA from the University of Arizona, where he studied cello with Gordon Epperson and music history with James R. Anthony.

Awards and honors

• Dedicatee of a Published Musical Work, Richard Faith, composer, August 24, 2010
• Artist Faculty, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, 2011
• Missouri London Program, International Studies, August 2009
• Artist/Scholar Resident, American Academy in Rome, 2003
• Award in Teaching, MSU College of Arts and Letters